Gratitude is the lifestyle Jesus Christ came to restore in all people; it is a living attitude of genuine gratitude to God for all He has done.
Our Gospel reading is simple enough, but let me make it a little simpler. Ten “dead men walking” pleaded with Jesus for their lives. Death was the natural course for those with Leprosy. Life was a gift from God; restoring life was a genuine miracle.
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!
Psalm 107:1
According to God’s Word, Death is an invader into God’s design; the result of man’s stubborn refusal to simply accept God’s goodness and mercy.
Adam and Eve wanted to be their own gods rather than to serve the true God. That is death; separation from God the Giver of life.
Jesus came that we might have abundant life. Jesus came to redeem life to all “walking dead men;” so we might have “newness of life,”
Abundant life is knowing God and doing His will in our lives. Abundant living calls for abundant gratitude. To live newness of life means living our thanks to God.
Jesus provided a miracle for His disciples and for the ten lepers. Ten got the miracle, but one got the message. Ten got the sign, but only one got the insight into abundant living; give God your heartfelt thanks for His gift of salvation. Remember to say, “Thank you to Jesus.” Psalm 107:1 “Give thanks to the Lord, for His love endures forever.”
A student asked Martin Luther, “If you could have only one book of the Bible, which would you choose?” His choice was Genesis. God’s plan started “In the beginning.”
Sin entered creation through Adam and Eve in the beginning. Through that initial rebellion against God’s plan, we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3). “None are righteous, no, not one” (Psalm 14).
Then [Abraham] said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.”
Genesis 18:32
In short, man needs God’s plan.
Chapter eleven of Genesis introduces “Abram.” He stood out from the ‘Sin Cycle Gang.’ God appreciated Abram. He was as good as man could be. His goodness was not perfect performance. He was eager to glorify God by living as God intended.
Abraham (i.e., Abram) was God’s faithful optimist. He believed God, and God counted his faith as righteousness.
God and two unidentified angels met with Abraham under the trees of Mamre. This meeting was not just for blessing, it was also for warning.
Abraham, God, and His two unidentified messengers set their course toward Sodom and Gomorrah.
Sodom and Gomora were a perfect example of moral depravity.
They were lost beyond a care for God’s mercy.
Sodom was a dramatic demonstration of God’s righteous judgment against sin and wickedness.
God trusted Abraham for godly fellowship. Abraham affirmed God’s love for all life. They were friends. The blessings from God included a mission for all who follow God’s plan.
God said, “I have known [Abraham] and he will command his children and his household after him, so they keep going the way of the Lord, being right and just” (Genesis 18:19). God not only trusted Abraham with the present, He entrusted Abraham with future generations.
Yahweh made His intentions clear to Abraham, because Abraham would teach future generations to walk in God’s way and no other way. Jesus blesses and warns us to keep the way of the Lord (John 3:16-17). Is God’s blessing for everybody.
There are truly two sides of the Day of the Lord. It is like the now famous bumper sticker: “Eternity: Smoking or non-smoking?” To the wicked, to any who mock God and block faith in Jesus, God warns, “Unpack your asbestos underwear; judgement will get very hot.” “‘All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and Judgment Day will set them on fire,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Malachi 4:1a).
This is God’s plan repeated as Jesus tells us to “make disciples of ALL NATIONS…baptizing [and]…teaching all I have commanded” (Matthew 28:19-20). Blessing and warning.
Not fifty, not forty, not even ten are right and just on their own merits. Only Christ, the righteousness of God by grace, through faith, saves. From Genesis through Revelation, Jesus is our message from generation to generation.
There are a lot of musicals that I love. My favorite is Hamilton. But right up there are “Les Miserables,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” and Wicked.
I’ve had the chance to see “Fiddler” a couple of times live with Topol, including his farewell tour.
But one things is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.
Luke 10:42
It was fantastic!
One of the great songs in that musical is “If I Were a Rich Man.” Some of the lyrics go:
If I were rich, I’d have the time that I lack To sit in the synagogue and pray And maybe have a seat by the eastern wall And I’d discuss the holy books with the learned men Seven hours every day And that would be the sweetest thing of all
Some feel that this is what pastors get to do all day.
That would be wonderful!
The reality is that pastors, like all of us, have many distractions that pull us from the “one things…necessary” that is “the good portion” (Luke 10:42).
In our text for today, Martha gets a bad rap. The inevitable question comes: “If Martha (and others like her) didn’t deal with everything, how would the get done?”
Jesus doesn’t answer that. He also doesn’t say what Martha is doing in unimportant. In fact, the only way He addresses her is that she is “anxious and troubled by many things” (Luke 10: 41) and earlier the text says she was “distracted” (Luke 10: 40). But the problem isn’t the items needing to get done. The issue is that Mary has chosen that which is the toip, best, most important thing. She sees the priority of things.
There will always be distractions and things to get done, but when we have – and take – that opportunity to grow in our relationship to God, grow in our faith, grow in the Word, we need to take it! (And address the other items another time.)
The fact is, we usually elevate the importance of these other matters and devalue items relating to our faith. We usually use the “distractions” as a convenient way to say “we’re too busy” to be in communion with God and take time in the Word.
The issue is seldom the other matters. The issue is what we value; what we spend our time on; what we choose with our time. The issue is whether we truly see Jesus as “the good portion,” at the expense of all else.
What are the distractions in your life causing you anxiety and keeping you from Him, the “good portion?” What will you do by the Holy Spirit to put away the distractions and focus on Him?
“Lord, grant that we put away all distractions and focus on growing closer to You, for Your desire is for us. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
As a kid, I knew a lot of our neighbors. Most of them had kids my age and we played all the time in the street. Our parents were friends and we did things together at each other’s houses. We gathered, ate, laughed, and kidded. If a neighbor needed help, we helped; even if we didn’t agree on everything. It was what being a good neighbor was about.
I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that a company co-opted the concept of a “good neighbor” to build upon those nostalgic memories, good feelings, and good friends.
[Jesus said,] “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be the neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Luke 10:36-37
We seem to have lost a lot of that in our current day. I don’t many of my current neighbors – except for the few that post on the neighborhood Facebook page or those who also attend LifeBridge.
That is a loss, I believe, for society.
Scripture tells us that we should be good neighbors. Godly neighbors. Neighbors who not only help, but give of their own resources to help someone in need.
It should be a given that someone who follows God and His law would do this.
Sadly, it is not. And it hasn’t been.
Our text for today tells a familiar story. Jesus is tested by a lawyer. We know the story. But perhaps it’s lost on us who the first two to pass by the victim were. The first, a priest. The second, a Levite. If anyone should know God’s law; should want to help; should set the example; should be the epitome of doing what is right, godly, and neighborly; living out the concept of mercy – it should be these two!
Yet it’s not. It’s a Samaritan who does. A Samaritan who helps. A Samaritan who has a heart to act neighborly; to show mercy. A Samaritan who, as a group were despised by many Jews.
This was backwards. A reversal of the way things were supposed to be.
I wonder if we get the point.
When people look at us, do they know “we are Christians by our love;” by our actions; by the mercy we show; by the help that we give? Can they see in and through us that our heart is one of giving; of loving? Do we show in our actions what God shares in His Word? Are we not only good neighbors, but even better godly neighbors?
Many times, of course, the answer is ‘no.’ We get so tied up at our own things; in our own world; in our own business; in our own needs that we either fail to see those of others or we simply can’t get around to it.
What’s the way out of this? Probably the easiest thing we can do is to continually remember the godly neighbor Jesus is to us. We, who were so often beaten up by our own sins, by the world, and by the Adversary, that we were left for dead. Then Jesus came by, tended our wounds, showed us mercy, and upon that heaped grace; not only to restore us, but to prosper us unto eternal life.
We have a godly example because we have as our example God.
God not only told us how to be a good neighbor in His Word, but showed us how to be a godly neighbor in and through the person of Jesus through the cross and empty tomb. We have only look at Him and follow His example out of gratitude for what we ourselves receive.
Take some time this week to see who God puts in your midst. What neighbors He places around you who are beat up by the world and needs some help, needs some love, needs some mercy.
And then attend to them by showing them Jesus, not just in words, but in actions – out of love, out of response, out of gratitude. Be the godly neighbor, not just because we are called to be that, but because God has given us that in Jesus.
“Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being a godly neighbor and showing us love, mercy, and grace that we didn’t deserve. Grant that we, in response, show the same to all that You place in our midst. In Your holy and precious name. Amen.”
There’s a lot in our passage today about sin; about being tempted; about helping others in their burdens and temptations; in keeping oneself pure amidst our own temptations; about bearing our own burdens; about sharing good things that we’ve been taught back with our teacher; about reaping what we sow – whether from the flesh or spiritual nature; about taking up opportunities for doing good – especially to fellow believers.
But the focus for us today is on boasting not in ourselves or in others but in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ because that’s what matters; that’s the basis for all of the other things happening, all the other points in our message, all the other teachings in our lesson. If we boasted ourselves – in what we do and how we’re living – and how good we’re doing, and how we’re avoiding bad and evil, and how we’re helping others out; how we’re avoiding temptation; how we’re living the good life — if that is our focus instead of the cross of Jesus, we can get arrogant in our minds and in our actions. We can see in our actions reasons to get puffed up. We can see in ourselves and what we do or don’t do and hold them up with hubris rather than seeing God’s son Jesus who was held up in humility.
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Galatians 6:14
All of these items in our lesson are good great even to be commended; to be followed; to be emulated – but not to be boasted in. We boast in the cross of Christ because it is only in and through Him that any of the other things that we do or don’t do, not only matter but are possible through faith in Jesus. In Jesus are all things possible.
Good is to be sought and desired and followed only when we see that it is through the highest cost of the cross that our sin is forgiven; that we find a true heart motivation for avoiding temptation and that which separates us from God.
Works don’t get us to heaven; the cross does and because the cross has our desire for works is inevitable. A true understanding and belief in what Jesus did on the cross and through the empty tomb will invariably drive us at our very core to avoiding sin and zealously pursuing good.
Thanks be to God for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of Him the world has been crucified to us and us to the world, so that we are free to love and serve the world for God.
“Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your Son our Lord, Jesus, to us. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for enduring the cross, scorning its shame, for us and our salvation. Our boast is in You alone; always and only for Your glory and for the good of the world. We love you. Amen.”
The book of Colossians is a book from St. Paul where he addresses an important issue at a congregation where he wasn’t the founding missionary (a man named Epaphras was). He likely wrote this book around 60 AD when he was in Ephesus. Epaphras was troubled by what was happening in his congregation and shared it with Paul. This letter is Paul writing to address the situation.
Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.
Colossians 2:8 (CSB)
It was extremely vital because some were questioning the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus. They were also “adding” a blend of Jewish practices and Gnostic ideas (which emphasized a “secret knowledge”) and asceticism to the Gospel of Jesus. This “philosophy and empty deceit” (Colossians 2:8) is completely contrary to the all-sufficient Gospel of Jesus and needed to be addressed and countered! This false teaching is called “The Colossian Heresy.”
Paul iterates the identity of Jesus as “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) in Whom “the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19). He also reminds them that you can’t (and mustn’t!) add to what Jesus already. Our salvation is in Jesus, not by what we do.
Paul writes his letter first with some preaching to the Colossians and then teaching them about Christian living.
It’s all about Jesus, God incarnate, who saved us! Nothing more is needed; ever! Join us for our series of this wonderful book!
Most people like a party. Surprisingly, even a pity party.
For some reason there are times that we like to feel miserable, alone, even abandoned. Playing the victim carries some status, I guess. Of course there are times when we’re not playing the victim but actually are. Times when we don’t just feel alone but are. When we’re in the moment it’s difficult if not impossible to tell the difference between what we feel and reality. Our perception, in the pain, often defines our reality. Our head may know truth but our heart make counter.
Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.
1 Kings 19:18
In our text today Elijah has just been God’s servant in an amazing show of God’s power and might. God has used him to display His greatness to the leaders and people of the land in an explicit and undeniable way. Yet right after this he is threatened and runs away scared. When he talks to God he bemoans that he is the only one left who is faithful to Him. Elijah may well have felt that was true, even though it is likely there was evidence to the contrary.
And God showed him that what Elijah felt was indeed not at all true. Elijah was not alone. He was not abandoned. He was not the only one left who was faithful to God. God tells Elijah that He has preserved for Himself “seven thousand in Israel” (1 Kings 19:18) who have remained faithful to Him.
That’s not to say that Elijah didn’t feel alone. It’s God telling him he wasn’t alone. God’s reality is what matters no matter how we feel.
That doesn’t minimize our feelings or are hurts or pains. But it is a stark reminder that those things, though our reality, are often or seldom not true reality.
There are times that we may feel distant from God, abandoned by God, all alone. There are times when we feel our sins have pushed us so far from Him that He couldn’t possibly still be present with us, still forgive us ,still love us. That we are all alone.
But that’s not reality.
Through faith in Jesus Christ the reality is that He has preserved us for Himself forever. He is with us and we are not alone.Ever. We are not abandoned because Jesus was for us. Even in our pain He has given us the Victory.
When God displays His power and salvation, don’t run away.
You may feel alone, but you never are. He is with you.
It’s not about you.God preserves.
That is reality. That is what matters.
Through faith in Jesus we are preserved. By God. For Himself.
Remember this in your suffering and pain. Remember Jesus’ words that, “Lo, I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
“Thank you, Lord God, for checking our feelings with Your reality. With Your care. With Your love. Help us to always remember that so that our feelings don’t trump Your Truth. Remind us that through faith in Jesus alone You have preserved us for Yourself forever. In Jesus name, amen.”
I often think we don’t fully appreciate our status as Christians. As children of God. The fact that we are heirs of God. We occupy a special, selected, privileged position not enjoyed by those who do not have faith in Jesus. We can talk to God our father in a way that those without faith can’t – won’t. As children of God through faith we are free from all that binds and holds us back.
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring according to promise.
Galatians 3:29
Unfortunately I think that some Christians view this status as license to treat our Father like a genie; their to just grant whatever we want whenever we want. They see accumulation in this life as the goal instead of our adoption and eternal life as the goal; as the gift.
It’s a focus on self and this world instead of on God and the next.
And when we truly understand our place, our privileged place as God’s heirs – and that the new creation is already ours, that should change our motivation and heart. Not to gain this world, but to serve it. To serve others. To share the faith so that others may also receive that same gift commit that same inheritance of eternal life. So that others may become our eternal brothers and sisters and all of us together can cry, “Abba! Father!”
Being full heirs through faith in Jesus means recognizing the fact that God’s full inheritance is already ours. We have nothing to strive for. Nothing to fear. Nothing to worry about. We have it all. Now.
What an awesome blessing! What an awesome privilege! What an awesome status!
“Thank you, Abba, Father, for freeing us from the slavery of sin and making us Your full heirs and inheritors of freedom and everlasting life through faith in Jesus. Grant us wisdom and joy to share this Gift in word and deed. In Jesus’ name, amen!”
Last Sunday was Pentecost. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the people in Jerusalem and the start of the Church united in Jesus.
God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.
Acts 2:24
The first thing the Holy Spirit led Peter to say in our text was last week, explaining what was happening in God fulfilling His prophecy through Joel.
Today Peter continues, sharing words of prophecy from King David and how David foresaw and foretold how his Descendant would die but rise again, not even letting His body see decay!
The words are not just important for those within earshot of Peter. We, also, need to hear what the Holy Spirit has to say. Too often we listen to ourselves and others, and ignore or drown out His Words of life for us.
In our Scripture today, the Holy Spirit shares through Peter that “God has made [Jesus] both Lord and Christ” – the master over all and God’s Anointed One for all time!
The Holy Spirit is sharing that Jesus is the One prophesied about; the One God chose to execute His plan of salvation; the One who is elevated over all things for all time!
That’s what the Holy Spirit does: He points people to the Lord and Savior; He points them to Jesus! Because in Jesus, there is forgiveness! In Jesus there is mercy! In Jesus there is Life! In Jesus there is salvation!
Faith in Jesus is your very life – now and forevermore!
Look to Him! Believe in Him! Serve Him! For God has made Him both Lord and Christ!
“Gracious God, thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit to point us to Jesus! Thank You for You plan of salvation which Jesus fulfilled and now and forever, Lord and Christ! Move us from areas in our lives where we do not see or treat Him as such. Forgive us and renew us with Him always and only before and above us. In His precious name; amen!”
It’s hard to overstate the importance of Pentecost. For many Christians it’s simply a nice story about “the birth of the Church,” the sending of the Holy Spirit, the speaking in tongues. A story about how God sent out the Holy Spirit like a tongue of fire.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Acts 2:21
It’s an amazing story, but often that’s where it ends. There may be a connection here and there to how it reverses the story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11, but it’s usually a surface connection and fails to carry the import of the Genesis event or the connection it has with Pentecost.
In Genesis 11 the people were arrogant and God judged them, not just by confusing their language and their understanding of each other, but by scattering them and dispelling their unity.
If they wanted to reach heaven and be their own God then they would be on their own to do it. If they wanted to make a name for themselves rather than be under and worship in the name of the one true God, God wasn’t having it. If they didn’t want Him, so be it; He wasn’t going to force Himself on them. Instead He would choose His own people for Himself. The next chapter in Genesis has Him choosing Abram and giving His covenant to him.
Jump forward to Pentecost. Here we have the time after Jesus conquered the chaos and confusion caused by sin, death, and the devil and after showing Himself to multitudes as being alive, He ascended into heaven and now sends the Holy Spirit to bring people together. To unite in Jesus. To reverse the chaos of Babel and move forward with a new life in the Spirit of God. A Spirit who unites, not in Himself, but in the name and the salvation of Jesus Christ. The reversal comes to all who call upon the name of the Lord. All who have faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit shows that they will be saved. Beyond confusion, beyond chaos, beyond scattering. In Jesus there is beautiful understanding, order, and a gathering together in God.
What a wonderful reversal! What a beautiful end! What a joyous day to celebrate!
“Thank you Lord Jesus for conquering chaos and confusion. Thank you father for sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost so that the curse of Babel would we reversed and that now all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved! May we live and breathe your spirit in our lives and through the lives of others. In Jesus name, Amen.”
There are so many good things in today’s Scripture.
Here we have the “High Priestly Prayer” of Jesus, which John records right before His time in the Garden before His betrayal and arrest.
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:3 (ESV)
Jesus gives us so much in His prayer to the Father for His disciples – whom He knew would desert Him and struggle to regain their footing following His death.
But we can see a few key points:
They aren’t of the world (as He isn’t of the world)
Jesus has shared the Truth with them; the Truth of eternal life by knowing God as the only true God and in Jesus whom the Father sent, made known through the very Word of God
Unity is important and is found in Jesus for the sake of the saving Gospel of Jesus
The challenge for us is that we don’t see unity in the Body of Christ. Quite the opposite.
Many reasons abound for this, but the two primary ones are a lack of love in the Body and a lack of pursuance and steadfastness in the Truth in the Body.
The reality is, the Body of Christ’s Church is fractured because our sinful world is fractured. It is challenged because many in the Body love the world more than God, others, and the Truth.
But the reality is different from the perception of it.
The fact is, there is unity in Christ. Unity in His grace and mercy. In His Truth. Unity in His forgiveness. Unity of salvation.
Through Faith in Jesus (and Him only!), there is the one unifying Truth: Jesus saves!
That is a Truth to unify in! He is the Truth to unify in!
“Thank You, Jesus, for praying for Your Body, the Church. Thank You for unifying us in You; in Your Word, in Your Truth, in Your grace, in Your forgiveness, in Your life, in Your salvation. Grant us Your Holy Spirit so that we put aside this things which break us in our unity – our lack of love and our failure to hold to the Truth of You and Your Word. Help us live the unity we have in You through faith. In Your precious, holy, unifying Name do we pray. Amen.”
Life is tough. It has challenges and heartaches that we could never foresee. (That’s probably a good thing.)
In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.
John 16:33b (ESV)
Some believe that being a believer means we won’t (or shouldn’t) have these difficulties anymore. Some even go so far as to say that if a believer is undergoing hardships, persecutions, and challenges, it is evidence that they either do not believe or their faith is not strong (enough.)
Not only is this un-Scriptural, it is anti-Scriptural.
Today’s scripture plainly says that “in the world you will have tribulation.” Not “if you have little faith,” not “may,” not “might;””will!”
We don’t get to know the times the tribulations will come. We don’t get to know what types of tribulations they will be. We don’t get to know the severity or extent or length. We know that being in this sinful, fallen, messed-up world, tribulation will be there with it. A part of it. Because of it.
But that’s the end of the reading or verse, “But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
The tribulations aren’t the focus. Our sufferings and pains and heartaches aren’t the focus.
Jesus is the focus. Always.
And His victory over the world and all it’s tribulations and heartaches is now our victory, too. Heartaches are transformed by Jesus’ “take heart.”
He doesn’t promise tribulations will cease in this fallen world. He points us to the reality that this fallen world – and all it’s tribulations has been overcome and a New Creation is in store, where heartaches are never more.
Take heart! Jesus has overcome; for you; for all, forever.
“Lord Jesus, we praise and thank You that You have overcome the world, overcome death, sin, the devil, and all tribulations and heartaches. Remind us in challenges that they are temporary and defeated and that we can take heart and look forward to the new world You will create, free from all tribulations and heartaches. In Your holy and precious name do we pray. Amen.”
